Mama Cinder
by Metalife
Summary: (AU idea originally made by kinzaibatsu91 on tumblr) What would it be like if Ruby was a child during the events of RWBY? One that had been taken in by Cinder? This is a collection of one shots that explores that idea.
1. Chapter 1

**This is an AU created by kinzaibatsu91 on tumblr (and the drawing idea is taken from a comic she made for this AU). If you like the idea of this AU, please go check out her work, as she has made a ton of comics involving this AU, as well as others she has made.**

 **I hope to make this a loose series of one shots involving this AU idea. So if more chapters pop up, please keep in mind that it will play fast and loose with the canon plot, and that there will probably be no over reaching plot between any of them (unless it's a series of one shots involving a particular idea, but I'll make the chapters to make that easy to see). I hope you enjoy this, and please go check out kinzaibatsu's comics and other art as well.**

The dockside warehouse had been silent this night until the soft beat of Roman's boot heels treading wearily across the floor broke the quiet. Moonlight flowing in from the broken moon hanging in the sky was thankfully easily enough for him to see by. With no White Fangs having been working this night in moving and sorting through stolen Dust, there was no need for the light strips above to be on.

His white coat still stark in only moonlight, Roman walked up to an empty table, a heavy case that he had been holding onto letting its weight be known as he placed it onto the surface. A tired sigh slipped out as he rested both hands on the edge of the wood. 'Where the hell was Beacon getting these kids from?'

"How very disappointing Roman."

"Woah!" That voice sent a jolt down his spine, not even thinking on why he hadn't heard the heavy warehouse doors that normally screeched across the floor until now as he turned to face the person in question, making sure to keep a good grip on the handle of his cane as a nervous burst of laughter came out. "Wasn't expecting to see you guys so soon."

"We were expecting… more from you." His hands braced on the table behind him momentarily as the woman talked, two figures following her conveniently standing just out of reach of the moonbeams, most of their details hidden by shadow. Her, however, was in just enough light for him to see those familiar amber eyes, and the long dark hair pulled down and over one shoulder to run down the front of her dress.

"Heyyy, you were the ones who suggested working with those stupid mutts from the White Fang." It didn't take much for Roman to put himself on the defensive, with the line of work he chose to be in. Although, even as he gestured with his cane, defending himself was all he could really do with the employer he had found himself with. He was reminded of that fact when she let out a short dismissive laugh, almost as if she was amused by his description of the Faunus lackeys he had been given.

"And you will continue to do so." A hand raised up in front of her, a flame erupting into life from the palm of it. There was no sign that the flame was from any machine, nor that it was any danger to her as she strode forwards towards him. "We have big plans for you, Roman." Her eyes were glowing, setting forth their own light as the figures with her now stepped into the beams coming through, features now becoming distinct from mere silhouettes of teenagers. "All we ask is… A little co-operation."

"Mommy!" The shrill call broke through the dominant stance she had been showing to Roman, the fire in her palm sputtering as the silver haired boy and green haired girl behind her shared a quick glance between themselves. Although surprised, it didn't seem that any of them were in any way alarmed about the rapidly approaching beat of small feet heading their way. While he might have been glad to not have the full attention of his 'boss' on him and his recent failure, it still put him on edge not knowing who this fourth person was that was rushing in. Even as there was a soft thud and the woman swayed for a moment.

"Ruby." The expression on her face had not changed, but her gaze snapped off from looking him in the eyes to glancing downwards instead. Her tone changed from enjoying being in control, to calm and inquiring. "Mommy is working right now. I thought you were told to wait in the car for us."

"Yes! And Em gave me paper and crayons too!" Wait. That had to be the voice of a kid coming up from the darkness around her legs. What the hell was a kid doing with this group? Before he could think more, or even speak up about it, a paper was thrust up from the shadows, the child now moving to be at the woman's side. "And I made you this!"

"I'm so sorry Cinder." The green haired girl spoke up, Roman almost sure he that he could see red rising to her dark cheeks. "I thought that it would keep her busy until we got back. I didn't think-"

"It's fine." There was a rustle as the paper was taken from an outstretched small hand, Cinder's attention turning towards it giving Roman the opportunity to take a moment to see just what kind of toddler had interrupted them.

A hood was drawn up over their head, pointed ears poking up from it to add canine features. As he took in further the red dots in a white blotch along the rim of the hood, it was a lot easier that it was a hooded jacket meant to look like a Beowulf's fur. Red tinged hair, longer on one side, but still short to fit most beneath the hood, swung out as the child hugged against Cinder's leg, looking up and waiting with bated breath for a reaction to the paper handed up to her.

"You drew this?" A smile creeped up, the corners of her mouth turning upwards. "It looks wonderful." The wide grin Ruby made gleamed with the moonlight catching her teeth. The paper was flipped around in Cinder's grasp, facing Roman now. "Isn't it lovely?"

On the paper was messy crayon scribbling, but even he could see that half of the page was taken up by a huge fireball, red and orange wax erupting from the reaching arms of a small figure on the other side that, from the streak of black from its head down over the red covering most of it's body, had to be Cinder. That, and an arrow pointing towards it with 'Mommy' written on the other end, along with another arrow stating that another character on the page, roughly half the size of Cinder's, was 'Ruby'.

"It IS lovely, isn't it, Mister Torchwick?" There was a bite to her tone, the glow coming back to her gaze as she waited for him to say something.

"Ah… Yes!" Although he would be laughing at seeing someone else caught in this situation instead of him, it was definitely in his best interests of not wanting to be roasted alive to play along for now. "What… An amazing use of colour!" The sides of his mouth pulled back as he tried to give a smile to the kid, one gloved hand curling in with the thumb sticking out. "Good job, kid."

"Ruby, what do we say when someone gives you a compliment?"

"Thank you, Mister Torchwick!" She chirped up from Cinder's side.

"Now, why don't we head back to the car, and you can make some more drawings as we drive home? Maybe we can even stop for a happy meal on the way back." A squeal of excitement later, Ruby was running back to where their car must have been, the teenage girl that had spoken up before running after to keep an eye on her along with the other teen as Cinder hung back for a few moments longer.

"Remember Roman." The glow was still there, making sure he knew the promise behind her words even as she still held the child's drawing in one hand. "All we need is for you to co-operate with us. I trust you already understand the consequences of going against that." Another flame, much brighter and deeper red erupted from her hand, staying there until she ensured a nod of understanding before she would leave.

There was a scraping of metal as the warehouse door closed behind her, leaving Roman back to being alone in the storage of stolen supplies. He waited until he could hear the muffled rev of a car being brought to life, before laughing once, the sharp noise filling the warehouse and echoing back to him briefly.

That woman, with the power that had brought him to his knees and made him swear, albeit maybe temporarily, loyalty to her, toting around a kid that couldn't even be more than eight years old and playing doting mother? This had already proven to be a crazy enough world, but this had to be in the top ten of his list.

From one pocket came a cigar. From another, a lighter that he flicked open. A spark brought a small flame just enough to ignite the end of the cigar in his mouth now, a deep breath making the smouldering end brighten before he pulled it away to breathe out the smoke in his lungs.

What kinda ride was this broad gonna lead him on?


	2. Chapter 2: Siblings

**It's been a while, but here's the next piece for the collection. The first scene is basically an adaptation of a Kirby comic by KC Green (unfortunately I couldn't find a direct link that says it's his work, but have a link for people to at least look at.** ( gallery/j2nnWmG) **) Anyways, I hope you enjoy this update.**

The warehouse was a hub of noise today, forklifts and White Fangs about sorting out the stolen crates of Dust onto shelves that would span right up to the ceiling with wooden and metal boxes. Normal dust particles hung in the air, highlighted by beams of sunlight streaming in through windows propped open.

One beam in particular was shining onto a crate where a small figure was sat along its edge. Feet drummed against the wood as they swung back in against the side. Bright coloured pencils were scattered on one side of her, while one was in her grasp and moving swiftly across the open page of a sketchbook on her lap.

"More drawings?" A silver head of hair dropped down to peer behind her at the page as Mercury came up. Bright colours were blurring into one another in the shapes drawn on the page the kid was holding. It may have been a bit hard, but not too hard to recognise the figure of Roman with a frown surrounded by crates and White Fang workers.

"Hm!" With a final stroke of the brown pencil, Ruby finished marking a cigar in Roman's mouth. "Em said this would help me wait."

Each day since they had come to Vale, Ruby had spent hours in the warehouse, left behind as Cinder went about her work, along with the others. At first, it had been interesting enough to clamber over crates as big as her and explore every corner of the warehouse. But, as more White Fangs and crates arrived, getting scolded more and more by Roman for getting in the way, and a close accident with a forklift, Cinder's orders became less "wait for me here" and more "sit and stay". And that's when the boredom really started to hit.

"What about these though?" A finger came over to tap against some scrawled words at the bottom of the paper. Mercury's brow pulled in, trying to make sense of the gibberish. "What's a 'blone'?"

"The black stone that's out front." With the warehouse door open, and Ruby pointing out towards it, he was reminded of the big stone block outside the entrance. Other than the colour, it looked like other bollard blocks left around this district, but it helped Roman and his workers identify this warehouse from the rest of the identical buildings that would surround it. "I heard how some words are made from combining others, and wanted to try it."

"Huh. So," The teen leaned back, looking around for something for his eyes to land on, eventually settling. "Roman's table over there, with the maps on it. What would that be?"

It took a moment for Ruby to think over it, heels idly drumming once against her crate before deciding.

"A Mable!" One side of Mercury's mouth twitched up. He had been expecting to have to waste time after finishing his assignment for the day early, but this was already better than seeing if his legs needed any fine-tuning.

"How about that then?" A hand drifted up to point near the Mable, where a pink parasol had been left leaning against a corner.

"Pumbrella!"

Close enough. His gaze swept around for something else, almost going to point at a random White Fang hauling a crate over to a shelf, before the thought of Cinder overhearing that result made him reconsider. "Hmm. How about…"

"How about you stop with the nonsense words?" Emerald interrupted, walking over from the warehouse door. The edges of some papers poked out from around her belt, tucked away to avoid people catching sight of some suspicious red dots across the top of them. "You shouldn't be teaching her to talk like a baby."

There was a pause.

"…What would 'No Fun Girl' be?"

"A Nirl!"

"Hey!"

"That's thirty-nine Ginger Street, right?" Emerald's eyes didn't leave the Dust shop on the other side of the street as they walked past.

"Hmm. And open till ten most nights." Mercury glanced over a sign set into the shop's door. "So unsafe, keeping those hours when there's a Dust crime epidemic happening."

"Whee!"

"So, plus the one on Verde Avenue, and that makes five more shops that can be added to the list." The girl's face did not change despite the excited squeal that had come from between them. "Was it only ones that would still be open late, or could really any be hit?"

"Again! Again!"

"Think we're trying to avoid alarm systems tip off the cops faster than a shopkeep held at gunpoint can." Still keeping in stride with Emerald, one of his arms swung forward at the same time that one of hers did the same. "Although given Roman got kicked out of one store by a customer, perhaps maybe he's just too cheap to hire someone to hack into them."

A small pair of boots flew up between them, Ruby giggling as she was swung up completely off the ground for a few moments, before gravity could take her back down again. Gripping tightly onto a hand of each of the teens, she narrowly avoided stumbling as her feet touched back down onto the sidewalk.

"How many more to check out before we head back?"

"Two more. Why, getting tired of playing 'nice siblings out for a stroll'?" It was half the reason they had taken Ruby along with them. That, and that Roman had almost blown his top at the drawings found on his map this morning.

"Again!"

"Maybe…"

"Emerald!" Tears were starting to bud in the corners of her eyes as Ruby wandered in the centre of the park, looking around her for the other girl. A handful of people out enjoying the day slowed down as they spotted her, a young child on the verge of crying, alone and panicking. "Where are you?"

A large sniffle followed her shout, an arm raising up so she could rub her face with the sleeve of her jacket. This, and the whimper that followed, was the breaking point for some of those people who felt the need to help.

"Hey there." One woman knelt down to try and get to Ruby's level. "Are you lost? Would you like some help?" More sniffling followed, though she shook her head. "You sure you don't want any help at all?"

"I just want my sister." Ruby tried to blink away the tears and look around the park again. "I can't find her. She was right here a moment ago!"

"Well, maybe we can help you look for her. Do you remember what she was wearing?"

"Ruby!" A light green head of hair came into view from behind the woman. "There you are! I told you not to wander off!" The teen scolded as she scooped up the missing child, who eagerly wrapped their arms around the other's shoulders.

"I only stopped for a moment, and then you were gone!" She tried to talk back, but the choke of crying to her voice as she clung tight to Emerald.

She was still sniffling away the tears as the teen thanked the woman for stopping to help. Those same sniffles started to die away once Emerald had walked a distance away from the good Samaritan and out of sight.

"Did I do good?"

One hand reaching into her pants, Emerald brought out a thin leather wallet. Using a thumb to pull apart the folds and take a look at the Lien inside brought a smile to her face.

"You did very well. You're getting better and better at the fake crying." The wallet was folded up and slipped away so she could better hold onto the weight of the child hugging onto her. "How about some ice-cream before we head back for the day then?"

"Yeah!" Any signs that there had been tears before was completely gone by this stage, grin lighting up her features.

"You remember the promise though?"

"Not to tell Cinder that I was helping you pickpocket again?"

"There's a good girl."

"You know, elephants are really only as big as dogs." Mercury stated casually, crossing one leg over the other as he leaned back on the crate he was using as a stool.

"What?" There was no way Ruby could have just misheard that, looking up from her paper, pencil still in one hand as she stared incredulously at him. "That's not right. Elephants are meant to be really huge!" She said, stretching her arms up towards the roof of the warehouse to emphasise.

"Nah, that's just a myth. They're really just as small as you." It was hard to keep the smirk from showing on his face as he tried to keep up the bald-faced lie.

"But what about the zoos and all the pictures of them as being giants then?"

"Fakes, the whole lot of them. They probably found some rhinos and stuck props on them to make them look like elephants." He shrugged at the growing frown on the girl's face. "I'm telling you the truth."

"No you're not! You're lying!" Ruby took the bait, getting to her feet. "Elephants are not small!"

"Well, if you don't believe me, we can just ask someone else. Hey Emerald!" The teen in question looked up from the map table to glance over at Mercury curiously. "Elephants are actually really small, aren't they?" It was only by the brief appearance of his familiar smirk that she was able to get the hint to play along, and that he wasn't just being an idiot like normal.

"…that's right. They keep most of them in labs now, which is why you don't get to see any actual elephants running around." The look of disbelief was now aimed at her instead. "Because they're so endangered."

"That can't be right!" Ruby repeated herself. "Why are you both lying about this?"

"Us, lie? Would we ever lie to you?"

"Yes! Because you've done it before!"

"Does someone want to explain to me why there's so much noise here?"

The introduction of a familiar cool voice made the smile drop from both teens' faces. Amber eyes peered calmly around the three of them as she walked into view, but the thin line of Cinder's mouth suggested she knew this was more than just the volume of a simple conversation. Neither Mercury or Emerald wanted to be the one to confirm that. "Well?"

"…just a bit of teasing that maybe went a bit overboard." Despite trying to downplay it, Emerald still didn't like having the full focus of those eyes on her. Mercury kept quiet, waiting to see how her description of events went down first before acting. "Sorry, Ruby, we didn't mean it."

Although there was some grumbling, the child did look less upset than she had before. Which seemed to be the deciding factor in Cinder simply looking over them once more instead of dealing out some kind of punishment.

"Whatever it was, no more. There's enough going on as is that I can't afford to deal with this right now. So keep it down, and be ready for tomorrow." With that, she let them be, the click of her heels heading over to an end of the warehouse that Roman had disappeared into an hour earlier.

Both teens let out a breath they hadn't even been aware of, and there was peace for a few moments.

"…Okay, so elephants may really be that big. But giraffes, on the other hand…"


	3. Chapter 3: Uncle Roman

**This chapter unexpectedly turned out to be struggle to write. Hopefully it's turned out good in the end though. Please enjoy.**

* * *

"What? Since when did I become a babysitter?"

Roman stood with open hands gesturing in front of him, in the general direction of Ruby, standing before his table and currently distracted by a finger game Neo was playing with her.

"Since there's no one else to look after her while we go on this trip." That was the cool reply from Cinder as she waited with arms folded by the doorway to the warehouse, Mercury and Emerald grabbing a few last minute items to shove into their packs. Of course it was some secret trip that he wasn't going to be told about, only that it was one that the kid couldn't come along on.

"Really? Because last I checked, there was at least a dozen or so White Fangs running around working for us around this warehouse. Surely at least one or more of them would actually be good with kids. Or even like them."

"Because I don't want a masked stranger that I have no clue about watching over her." Yet somehow a career criminal she had hired to haul in Dust from around the city was much better.

"What about that Adam guy then?"

The cold stare that was levelled his way in response might have as well been a blade for the way it pierced right through him.

"…Yeah, let's just forget that suggestion.".

"All you have to do is watch over her for a day, hopefully." Oh great, so she wasn't sure they would be back soon to take Ruby off his hands. "Make sure that she eats, but not too much sugar, and that she doesn't get into trouble. Neo has some instructions to help take care of any problems." That sounded more like Neo was the one being trusted with watching over the boss's kid. "And I don't think I have to tell you what to expect if I come back to find a single scratch on her."

A gleam came to golden eyes, the same one from the night of the failed Dust ship robbery that had creeped him out then, and had the same effect now.

"Sure, sure. The kid gets a bruise, I get to see what the other side looks like. Nothing could be clearer."

Packs done, the teens strode past, Mercury pausing briefly to mess up Ruby's hair with one hand and a smirk as he passed by, Emerald giving a wave.

"Good." With her team set, Cinder came back a few steps, stopping before Ruby to bend down. "Be a good girl for Neo and Roman while we're away. I'll be back soon enough."

A quick kiss pressed to the child's head, and another warning look directed at Roman as she straightened back up, and then Cinder was out the door. He'd been half thinking the kid was sure to spring the tears at seeing them leave. Instead, a rapidly waving hand went above her head, calling out a goodbye to the trio as they left.

Soon enough though, those bright grey eyes swung from the door to him. She may have been less than half his height, but that expectant gleam had him concerned.

This was going to be a long day, wasn't it?

* * *

"Here you go. Knock yourself out kid." A pile of colouring books with a pencil set on top was slapped down on the crate in front of Ruby. This is what they did when they needed to keep her distracted and quiet for a while, right? She always seemed to have one in hand at least half the time he saw her around the warehouse. This should buy him a couple of hours to work in peace with.

These blueprints weren't going to plan and draw themselves up, after all. There were still Dust shops in the city that they hadn't gotten to yet, and Roman had been set on using this day to organise where, when, and how they were going to rob the joints. Other than the actual robbing, this had to be his favourite part of a job.

A glance over from his table once every so often was enough to check up on the kid in the beginning. As the morning went on, White Fang members started to turn up for work, changing over the night shift and bringing in more crates and noise along with them. Soon, Roman's attention was being pulled from planning to directing where to take what, taking results of the previous night's raids and movements, and preventing idiots from causing disasters.

After having to pull one particularly badly-trained forklift driver out of machinery before he could crash somewhere, Roman could already feel the beginnings of a headache rising up behind his brow. It was going to take him the rest of the day at this rate to be able to get through one heist plan.

Exhaling as he walked back to the table, his gaze flicked down to it. It took a few blinks as he paused to figure out what was out of place, eventually focusing on the small blob of dark hair right next to the edge of the table. And then moving over to the hand moving a pencil over the blueprint repeatedly.

"And just what do you think you're doing?" He could feel that ache in his head go up a notch at seeing a Beowulf being drawn up next to the back door of the Dust shop. Please say the slick look of the black strokes meant to be fur under this light was not from a marker. There hadn't even been one with the pencil pack, but that's definitely what it looked like.

"Adding." There was no sign in the bright reply that she had a clue of the irritation building up in the man behind her. "Your drawing looked boring as just a house, so I thought I'd make it better."

"It's not a drawing, it's a blueprint. And it didn't need any Grimm chewing on a Dust shop on it!" He tacked on, now seeing how that Beowulf was turning out. Before she could start on another, Roman placed his hand over hers, bringing it to a halt. "Go back to your books."

"Half of them are ones I've already done before though. Isn't there anything else I can do instead?" Her eyes drifted from him, over to a empty forklift that had been parked nearby.

Nope. That wasn't going to happen.

* * *

"Neo."

Looking up from a book, brown hair dropped down from Neo's shoulder as she looked over to her right. Roman's mouth was drawn into a thin line, one arm hoisting up a squirming child by the waist. Neo blinked, colours shifting as she put down the book. That explained why she thought it had gotten quiet around her.

"Help me."

* * *

Peace and quiet again. Well, at least as much of that as a busy warehouse could have. He may not know how the heck someone like Neo could smile sweetly at a child and get her engaged in trying to keep up with the rapid finger signs she fired off, when he had seen that same smile when she had been happily stabbing someone. No matter. She was happy enough to keep Ruby busy for some hours while he kept on his work without distractions, which made him happy.

Even if he hadn't been able to remove the Grimm from his blueprint.

With a sigh, he rolled it up to be put to the side. Hell if he was going to use this to show to whatever mob of White Fangs 'volunteered' for the job, he'd have to trace it onto another paper if he wanted to avoid the bitten back smiles and stifled snickers.

As the day continued, the heat of the sun pressing down on the warehouse made itself known. Given the contents of what they were holding here, opening up more doors and windows than they had to would only ask for trouble, so they had to suffer the growing humidity as best as they could.

It probably wouldn't have been so bad if most of the White Fang weren't wearing black clothing and hoods with their armour. Though Roman couldn't say he was faring much better himself.

Fiddling with the brim of his hat, Roman eventually pulled it off to set on the table. It was hard to care about image right now. He was half tempted to undo his overcoat and the ascot around his neck as well, but duty called yet again for him to come sort out another debacle. At this point, he really had to wonder if the recruits that Adam were sending his way were actually the ones that flunked out of every other role available. There was no other possible way to explain why two of them had thought that they could carry a giant load of volatile Dust by hand themselves instead of trying to get a forklift to help. It was just short of a miracle that one tripping had simply resulted in a broken arm instead of creating an explosion.

The injured one was being carted away to fabricate having broken it in an accident elsewhere as Roman returned back to his table. And again, the prickling feeling that something was off came to him. Though this time, it wasn't the appearance of extras on his papers. Trying to think of what was off, he unconsciously tapped the pockets round his person first, gloved hands eventually reaching out across the table to do the same.

Wallet, keys, secret knife, pencils, second hidden blade, eraser, ruler. They were all were he had left them. His right hand tapped out further to the right to empty space, the feeling growing as he realised what should have been there. And as he reached the edge of the table on that side, something else was also missing. A something he definitely did not want to find in the hands of a kid.

"Neo." He paced over to where he had left them before. Nope, no sign in the tucked away corner of empty crates they had been using as a resting point. There was the pile of colouring books, one left open to a half filled in page. And Neo's ninja novel with a bookmark tucked into it. Where had they gone to?

"Hand over all your Dust, old man!" Guess the answer would appear sooner than he thought. A large pile of crates had been stacked near the corner, from which the rough call had come from behind. Had some lazy White Fang been dumping them here instead of putting them in the correct shelves? Either way, that didn't matter right now.

What did matter was Ruby wearing his bowler hat, and gesturing with his cane towards an imaginary target. A mismatched pair of eyes turned to focus on him as he walked further in, Neo's head ducking slightly with an apologetic smile, even as the sound of the camera of the phone in her hand went off. Roman took a deep breath. Sure, this wasn't like having his blueprint defaced, but that didn't stop him from being irked at his possessions being taken.

"And just what are you doing now?" The call made Ruby stop, twirling round to face Roman. Though the bowler hat dropping down over her eyes made that difficult. "Watch it!" He swiftly moved to push down the business end of the cane towards the ground, heart missing a beat when she had momentarily had it pointed right at him.

"Playing Heist." Was the simple explanation, a hand reaching up to push the brim of his hat back.

"With my cane?" Last he checked, Melodic Cudgel was not a toy meant for five year olds.

"Neo said it was fine once she took out the ammo." A quick glance over, and he was pointed towards the cartridges left on top of a crate nearby.

"…okay. And the hat?"

"I wanted to look cool."

She thinks you need a cool hat when you're doing a heist or robbery. Neo signed off to the side, a wink following. Wonder where she got that idea from?

So wait a moment. The kid was trying to imitate him?

"…Tch." A small tug, and he had pulled his cane back from Ruby. "You really don't know much about trying to rob someone, do you?" With a flick of his wrist, he brought the cane up to aim off into the distance. "The first thing you need to know, is presence." Melodic Cudgel never wavered in his hand, feet moved to steady himself against recoil out of reflex. "Yelling and waving around a weapon can only get you so far."

Neo's smile widened as Ruby paid rapt attention. The phone went up again, the screen focusing on the pair discussing how best to intimidate an old shopkeeper.

* * *

It was surprising how much easier it became to keep her quiet and occupied on his own, now that he knew about her interest. A few questions about what she thought a good target might be, some giant pieces of paper and the pencil set, and Ruby was wrapped up in drawing out scenes nearby while he attended to matters at his table again. He'd also let her borrow the hat a while longer, on the condition of good behaviour (and a glowing report to Cinder if asked).

The humid feeling inside the warehouse had shifted as the afternoon went on, fading as the sky outside started to darken. And still no sign of the boss returning soon to pick up her kid. Perhaps they really were going to have to look after her overnight as well. The only thing he had to look forward to right now would be the change to night shift, where most would simply be on guard duty and not have much responsibilities to screw up.

Still, he had robberies to plan out, and more Dust to swipe. They weren't just going to hand over all their valuables to them of their own accord now.

But even with all the work that he had to do, Roman found his attention drifting over to Ruby every so often. Although he had gotten her focused on something she was interested in, that hadn't kept her out of trouble for long before. And this had been a really long while since she had last done something.

"You're being awfully quiet over there, kid." The clack of his heels coming towards her seat on a crate made her look up at him. "Thought you'd be done with drawing by now."

With his height, it was easy to simply scan her paper from above. Not that she was making any attempt to hide it from him. A house of some kind, with a swirly logo above its door, and trimmed bushes around it. A footpath ran in front of it and the park she had drawn up to its right. Strangely, it looked familiar to Roman, so he took another glance at the logo.

"Wait a second. This is that sweet shop from uptown, isn't it?" The name eluded him at the moment. All he could remember was that it was something around 'Sweet Tooth', or the like. This was a decently accurate sketch of the area around it, down to the small café like tables and seats it had on the park side. There were stick figure people drawn around the shop and the park, but none had any distinguishing features.

"…You want to rob that shop, don't you?" He should have seen this coming after asking her for ideas concerning heists. Most kids wanted to the chance to be able to stuff themselves full of chocolate. But most kids weren't also living with a bunch of criminals they called family that could give them actual knowledge to find a way to do so.

"Yeah!" Her feet drummed against her crate as she pointed out a window drawn towards the back of the shop. "Plan is to break through this window, throw everything I can grab into a bag, and then jump back out and run off."

"That's certainly a start, I guess." Her smile dropped off a bit at his mild reception of it. "Problem is, gourmet shop in high end of town like this? Probably a good security system put in, meaning cameras and alarms. A quick smash and grab like that, at any time of day, would be hard to make it to the other end of the park before police turn up."

"Well, how would you do it then?"

* * *

"We're back!"

The teens were the first to walk in a couple of hours after dark had completely fallen outside, a large duffel bag swung over Mercury's shoulder. As they came up, he shrugged it off to toss to one side with a soft thump, a dark uniform with grey trimming on it slipping out partway as it hit the floor. The scent of gunpowder spread from them as they came closer.

"Hope you didn't get too exhausted from running after her all day…"

He cut himself off at seeing Roman leaning back in his chair, a small figure propped up on one arm to keep from slipping off a shoulder while she slept. Torchwick's brow drew in at seeing them stare.

"What? She fell asleep on me, what the heck was I supposed to do?" He said before they could ask anything. "It's not like we have a bed here to put her on anyways."

"That doesn't explain…"

"Just take her off me already, would you?"

He rose up out of the chair as Emerald stepped forward. Despite no words, a raised eyebrow from her as he gently passed over the sleeping child was enough to make sure he knew there were questions. None that he would be wanting to answer probably.

"I trust there were no problems, Roman?" All attention switched over to Cinder quick enough as she made her entrance.

"None. Just the same old dealing with White Fang idiots. Are you sure we can't get any better help than this?"

Amber eyes flicked from him, to Ruby in Emerald's arms. There was a second where fear that something about the kid was off creeped in, before she moved to take her from the girl.

"Also, you may have missed a spot. Right here." Roman tapped a finger to part of his right cheek, below the ear. Cinder wiped her hand across the same spot on her own face, pulling it away to inspect the dark red smear that came off.

"…Thank you." She turned on her heel, bracing Ruby against her chest as she started to walk straight back out of the warehouse. "We will see you later, Roman."

That was the extent of the goodbyes, save for a look from her teenage pair as they snapped to following her back out, leaving behind their bag of spoils from the day's work.

No longer having to deal with a weight on his shoulder, Roman stretched out his arms and back, enjoying the satisfying pops that came. Not so much Neo coming to his side with a smug look.

"I still don't like kids. There's not much that's going to change that, no matter what you're thinking."

She didn't need to flex her fingers for him to be able to tell what she would say. But this time, she had nothing to say. Not when she could lift up the detailed drawing before him on the table, arrows and written ideas surrounding the little shop, with a little likeness of Roman posed by the front door aiming his cane in with a smile.

"That's just a business proposition." Her smile only grew in response. "Come on, I don't have time for this. You want to go home just as much as I do right now. Get your things and let's go." She flashed a grin before disappearing once more.

Left alone, he looked down at the paper in his hand. They might have as well added the title of 'Kid's First Heist' to it. He had a slight pause, before rolling up the plan and securing it with a band.

Nothing wrong with just holding onto it. Just until the next time the kid was around for him to give it back to her.


	4. Chapter 4: Solstice Special

**It took a while, but here it is. Please enjoy this (late) Christmas Special chapter.**

* * *

"And a merry Solstice to all, each and everyone of us!"

Smooth happy music accompanied by jingling bell sounds played as the scene on the screen mounted to the wall slowly panned out from the smiling family gathered around a tree to the outside of their house, covered with slowly falling snow. Ruby's feet drummed against the edge of the booth chair underneath her as her eyes remained glued to the screen in front of her.

There was thankfully no music in the bar to go over the movie's end, a couple of dressed up employees sweeping the deserted dance floor as Roman talked business with the very tall barman at his counter. They'd come after normal hours, a small time gap between when the teens were around for and when Cinder would be back meaning another trip with Roman to wherever he needed to be. It didn't take much after appearing at the barman's place to convince him to give the kid a remote and watch TV in a special booth while they talked.

The scene had faded to black to let the names in the credits scroll down across the screen when a sharp whistle jerked Ruby's head over to the bar, Roman beckoning her with one hand. She dashed over to leave with him, not really paying attention to the small smirk and wave back to the other man.

"Pleasure doing business with you, as always."

The door shut on the barman frowning and shrugging his shoulders with a sigh, picking up a towel and a glass. Ruby looked up at the sky above filled with a looming blanket of grey clouds. She could almost swear that she could see a small fleck of white falling down towards her, before Roman called for her attention again.

* * *

"Emerald!"

There was a soft thump into Emerald's side as a pair of small arms wrapped around one leg, Ruby hugging on tightly. Although caught by surprise, she and Mercury had enough thought left to to tuck away the ID cards they had been looking at, a school's emblem catching the light before they disappeared. Roman gave a glance over as he walked over to his desk, Neo waiting for him with a smile.

"Hey there. You were good today?" The fervent nodding in response was more felt than seen, given the height she had on Ruby.

"Very good! I even got to help count the Dust." A bright beaming smile was shining up at her when Emerald glanced down. "Do you think that I've been good enough for presents on Solstice?"

The hand patting over her hair paused.

"Solstice?"

"Yeah, that's soon, isn't it?" Ruby babbled forth, not perturbed by the surprise pausing the expression on Emerald and Mercury's faces. "The holiday where everyone gets together, and there's presents and food and snow and presents and-"

"Woah, slow down there. You're going too fast to understand." That brought her to a stop, a slight pink coming to her cheeks as she tried to mentally organise her words. As she got her words straight, she didn't recognise the familiar click of heels coming in through the entrance.

"…It happens every year, doesn't it? Where families get together, and they give presents to each other to show how much they love each other."

"Well, yeah, I guess." She wasn't really asking the right person about that.

"I only just learned about it from the TV today." Ruby gave a small pout. "I don't remember anything about having it before, so I guess I wasn't good enough for presents before." The warehouse had already been silent from being shut down for the night, but the air was practically sucked out with that line despite the smile coming on back on the kid's face. "But I've gotta have been good enough this year!"

"…Ruby." Her head snapped around to Cinder, standing with arms crossed over her chest. "It's time for bed now."

A quick good night later, and the woman had ushered her out. Roman's eyes kept to the papers on his desk as he listened to the heels' clicks fade out.

"…So, she really only learned about it now? After weeks of the city having snow flakes and the like strung up all over the place?" He had to admit, if it was a sympathy ploy, that was a pretty decent play for her age. There was a shrug from Mercury.

"They had been travelling between the kingdoms before we all met." He put forth. "Maybe even since she was born, I have no idea." He may have sounded nonplussed about it, but kept his arms crossed, and conveniently avoided eye contact for much more than a few moments.

"Plus, it's not like she's been going to the decent parts of the city with us, where they actually put all that crap up." Emerald added on.

A tap on his arm shifted Roman's attention to Neo next to him. A series of quiet hand gestures talked to him in silence, not covering up the footsteps of the teens taking this as a good opportunity to escape.

"…That does not sound like a good idea at all." Neo frowned, eyes switching colour as her hands became more rapid.

"No, I mean, that shop? With less than a week to plan and act on it? There's gotta be a better target than that."

* * *

Ruby rubbed her eyes as she pushed the sheets back. A few days had passed, and she had been counting down the hours towards the date. But it still didn't seem quite like the TV had said this time would be like yet. It was cold, but yet no snow had fallen. No decorations were strung up around the warehouse, let alone a tree. Like nothing had changed at all.

Maybe she hadn't been good enough.

There wasn't much reason to raise her head as she shuffled towards the door, wondering where Cinder was. Which made it easier for her eyes to lock onto the footprints surrounded by snow slush just outside the door she creaked open. Leaning out, she spotted more, heading down the path to the warehouse proper.

Holding a breath, she jogged alongside the prints, not minding the chill breeze that was blowing in to bite at the skin not covered by pyjamas.

By the time it came for the last turn of the corridor, she was practically running. Which was good, because when she made that turn into the warehouse, and saw the large roller door meant for trucks pulled up to show what was outside, she just kept on running.

"Snow!" Mounds of it, piled up alongside the pavement to keep the path clear. In a matter of moments, Ruby had crossed the distance to throw herself into the nearest pile of the sparkly white stuff.

And it only took a handful of moments more for her to jump out and run back inside, arms clutching her sides as she shivered.

"Cold!"

"What did you expect, kid?" A large white coat fell down over her as Roman walked over. "It is made out of ice."

"I just really wanted to see if it was real." She might still have been shivering as she pulled his coat better around her, but the chill did little to take away the grin plastered across her face.

"That was what got your attention first?" Mercury asked, that familiar edge of amusement in his tone. She had been so caught up with the sight of snow that it looked like she had ran right past everyone. "And not this giant pile over here?"

He waved an arm over towards one side of the corridor she had come from. If there was any day that Ruby's eyes might pop out on, it would probably be today if the surprises kept coming like this.

Brightly coloured paper gleamed under the lights on each of the boxes in the large pile of presents heaped together, some even wrapped with ribbons and bows. It was almost as tall as either Mercury or Emerald, who were standing next to it.

"Come on." Cinder called, one hand extended towards Ruby, who had stopped to just stare at all the presents laid out before her. "Don't you want to unwrap one?" There was a small smile as she waited.

Almost stumbling over the coat wrapped around her, she made the short dash. "Here we go, the first one." A small package, wrapped in scarlet red paper and tied with black ribbon, was pressed into the child's hands as Cinder kneeled to her level. "This one is from me."

The paper fell swiftly to the eager hands that tore into it to get to the present inside. A small cardboard box that was emblazoned with a symbol that looked like a roll of paper, and words such as 'new generation' and 'crystal quality'. Peeling away the tape holding it together, the top popped open for a grey rectangle to slide out, a yellow diamond bright in the centre of it.

"A Scroll!" She pulled on both halves of the device, separating them to make the holographic screen appear between the space.

"Now I want you to take good care of this, because this way I can find you if you get lost, and it's also very fragile so-" Her speech on the importance of the device was cut as a pair of arms wrapped around her shoulders into a tight hug.

"Thank you!" Ruby squeezed, and Cinder could feel wetness from where the child's face was pressed against her neck. She paused for a moment, before her own arms went around Ruby, softly pressing against the rough feel of the coat on her back. "I'll keep it safe, I will!" She promised, eventually ending the hug and pulling back, clutching onto the Scroll tightly.

"Good. And now the rest…" There was a wry smirk on her face as Cinder looked over the shiny pile beside them. "…are from Santa."

* * *

It certainly was going to take quite a while to get through all of the bright packages, but Ruby wouldn't have been able to say how long she had spent when each tear of paper brought forth something else new and fantastic.

Emerald and Mercury had even gotten some for themselves as well. There was barely stifled giggles when Mercury first pulled out an antler headband, complete with an additional red nose that glowed when stuck to his own. He had his own smirk on when Emerald pulled out a sweater of bright green, red, and white, decorated with all kinds of Grimm and Dust shards. Both were required to wear their items for the rest of the day as part of 'Christmas spirit', it was decided.

Neo, smiling underneath the red cap with white fur trim and pom-pom on top, offered a box to Roman. An eyebrow quirked up, he took it with both hands, untying the ribbon around it to pop off the top. The eyebrow went higher as he pulled out a small cutting of greenery with white berries attached, the stem of the cutting tied with a red bow.

Roman rolled his eyes with a quiet huff, the smile on Neo's face dropping. But before her face could change any further, his mouth was suddenly pressed to hers, bent down to reach her with one hand softly cupping the back of her head to keep her there. Slowly, he drew back, a smirk plain to see.

"Did you really have to ask?"

As Neo's hands reached out to grasp Roman's front, Ruby was fiddling with her new Scroll in a break between presents, finding herself switching between functions before finding one for television channels.

 _"Record snow fall today in Vale-"_

 _KSH_

 _"-There has been a report that Fing's Emporium of Toys has suffered a massive robbery-"_

 _KSH_

 _"-And a merry Solstice to all, each and everyone of us!"_

She looked up from the repeat of the movie, at the people around her, and the place they were in. It may not have looked much like the scene in the ending, maybe even only a little bit. But these people were those that were closest to her, and here they were, enjoying presents and being with each other, even if only for today.

And that was enough for her to be happy.


	5. Chapter 5: Semblance

**Hey. Not dead. Least not physically. Work, life, and writer's block been kicking my ass. Hope you like this chapter.**

"Hey Emerald?"

The teenager in question tilted her head over towards Ruby.

It was another day of business around the warehouse, during which a vast reshuffle of the stolen goods inside had been planned for. With the giant amount of forklifts rumbling away inside under the weight of Dust crates, the teens and kid were waiting on the pavement outside one of the doors in, waiting for the more literal dust to settle. Ruby's eyes were watching the small waves of the tide coming in to lap underneath at the edge of the dock the warehouse was placed on as she spoke.

"When did you find your semblance?"

Wine coloured eyes regarded the question curiously as Emerald continued leaning against the cool wall of the warehouse, arms crossed and one foot tucked inwards to the wall.

"Not sure, just that I was pretty young when it started." Bending a mind's reality was certainly not the kind of semblance that she was expecting to have pop up on her either. "I wouldn't be able to mark down any certain date to it appearing."

"So…" Ruby idly kicked a foot against the base of a railing post as she leaned against it, still watching the ebb and flow of the ocean. "Would you think that it might have been around my age?"

"It could have. Why?" Her attention was now fully on Ruby as she kept scuffing her boot on the metal post. "Did something happen that you think might be it?" Her tone lifted towards the end. Of course, it would be great news to give to Cinder if Ruby had managed to take her aura to the next step.

"Well, no. But it should have come by now, right?" The scuffing stopped as she turned to Emerald.

"Or it could take anywhere from now to another five years." Mercury chimed in from where he sat on the ground against the warehouse wall next to Emerald, legs wide before him as he propped his arms on top of his knees. "Semblances aren't the kind of thing that you can predict, from when they'll show to what they'll be."

"But it could already be here!"

"True. The only way to know for sure though would be to try and push it into action. Have something activate it for the first time."

"Mercury…" Trying to get in before any ideas could be put into the kid's head, Emerald knew she was too late when a gleam came into Ruby's eyes.

"Yeah, looks like flight is right out." Mercury remarked, holding out in both arms the child that had just hurtled off a pile of crates to narrowly miss connecting with the floor thanks to him.

"I didn't even hover a little?" Mercury's shake of his head prompted a groan from Ruby as she flopped over.

"Can we at least try for semblances in a way that won't result in broken bones?" Or wind up breaking crates of Dust in the warehouse. Emerald's grip on her arms relaxed as he put Ruby back on the ground.

"What about supersonic voice?" The first notes of a shriek slipped out of Ruby before a dark skinned hand could cup over her mouth.

"We already tried that, remember?" Her eardrums certainly did.

"Then super strength?" Before either of the teens could react or suggest another option, Ruby already had both small hands braced against the side of a crate larger than she was tall. Thankfully, the crate resisted all attempts to be moved, Ruby's feet skidding out from underneath her instead.

"It could be something not obvious." Ruby seemed to deflate slightly after the latest experiment. "Or it could have just not come in yet."

"But maybe it has! And I could if I could get it to work then I could come join you when you go out all day long on your missions!"

There was a pause from both teens, Mercury's eyebrows raising as Emerald's mouth worked on trying to find something to say.

"That's what's got you so focused on gaining your semblance?" It hadn't really come up before how having to stay around the warehouse while Cinder and the others worked felt to Ruby, although Emerald thought she had been keeping entertained enough by her books and irritating Roman. "I thought you liked it here."

"I do, and I like Neo and Roman." Ruby gave another shove against the crate, though the little effort she gave to it suggested she knew it wouldn't work. "But every day you all go and leave me behind here. Because I can't help out on the missions."

A quick glance passed between the teens, it's meaning lost on Ruby. Sure, it was true that she wouldn't be able to help out, or at worst get in the way, but that was not the most important reason why Cinder had forbidden ever bringing her along.

Not that they were going to tell her the truth.

"True." Mercury went with the easier option of just agreeing with the statement. "But gaining your semblance now isn't really gonna change that you're still too small and weak."

"I am not weak!" Despite the failed attempt at pushing crates around, she stomped a foot down onto the concrete floor.

"Yes, you are." Squatting down in front of her, Mercury highlighted their height difference even then, his head still above hers. "You haven't even started weapon training yet, and you've got years of growing still left to do. Even with a semblance, it's gonna be a long time before you get to be like us."

Ruby's mouth was drawn into a tight line, a slight tremble starting as she blinked fast, trying to prevent the liquid she could feel from gathering enough to form tears. As the first quiet hiccup slipped out, Emerald instinctively looked around to see if Cinder or Roman had popped into view as Mercury remained unfazed.

"I can be the same! And I'll have an awesome semblance too!" Another stomp of her foot to the floor, even if the soft thump it made did little to add emphasis. "And I'll find it without your help too!" At that, Ruby took off sprinting into the warehouse, dodging an attempt from Emerald to intercept before disappearing quickly from sight between the stacks of crates. Even trying to follow right after her did nothing, Ruby's height now working to her advantage.

"Shit." Emerald hissed as she tried looking around. It was difficult enough to find a small child in a massive warehouse full of nooks and crannies in a normal hide and seek game, when the right words could prompt a giggling clue, let alone when Ruby might intentionally avoid them altogether. "Did you really have to do that?" Turning back, she directed her frustration on Mercury as he stood up.

"Better she learns why now instead of trying something like sneaking along." He shrugged. "Would you rather she learns part of the truth, or for her to get hurt?"

"I don't care! There had to have been a better way to say it, that wouldn't have resulted in us now with a missing child, and only two hours to find her before Cinder gets back!" She pointing a finger at him. "I swear, if anything happens, I am laying the blame squarely on you."

With that threat, she stalked off in the direction that Ruby had ran, leaving Mercury to dwell on that thought for a few moments before following suit.

"Ruby…"

Emerald trying her best at sweetly calling out the child's name prompted nothing but silence around this section of the warehouse. Not even any rustles of movement of Ruby trying to move silently away from them. A quiet curse to herself, Emerald kept trying.

"Ruby, please come out. Mercury's sorry for what he said." Though she knew how obvious a lie that was the moment it left her mouth. Looking at the problem himself, she frowned as he simply looked along the massive metal shelves dividing up the place. "You could try calling out for her as well, you know."

"Your voice carries well enough on it's own." He walked a short distance away, still scanning around. "Besides, too much noise, and we might not even hear her."

"Been let off your leashes early today, I see."

There was no mistaking that snide voice, even without the clack of cane meeting floor to accompany it. Both turned towards Roman strolling in, a white plastic bag hanging from one arm as he went between them towards the foldout table he called a desk. "Still, it feels like something is… off. I see one, two…" He paused in counting, one gloved finger drifting around in an arc before coming to a stop. "…But I don't seem to spy a third. So, are you going to tell me how you lost a loud, hyperactive toe rag, or are you going to let me guess?"

"…she wanted to force her semblance, so she could come along with us." Emerald raised an eyebrow at Mercury for being the one to talk first. "I told her that she'd still be too weak for it." That eyebrow reached new heights at hearing him accept blame.

"And now she wants nothing to do with either of you. And Cinder is meant to be back in…" A flick of his arm to bring his left wrist before him and move his coat's sleeve, Roman glanced at a watch. "…relatively shortly." Emerald winced. That much time had already passed? "With still no clue of where she is, other than still being in the warehouse."

Reaching his desk, he set the bag down, rustling inside of it to bring out a brown plastic bottle. "I mean, it could be that she's hiding somewhere real deep in a corner somewhere." Walking over to a shelf behind the desk, he placed the bottle in a gap between crates, turning his back to it to continue addressing the two. "Certainly seems like she's no where close enough to take any of this chocolate milk I got."

Silence filled in as Roman stopped talking, raising a finger to hush them. It took a handful of moments, and Emerald was about to snark on how obvious a trap it was.

Then there was a rustle. Followed by a few more half-muffled sounds. Then a small hand reaching out from behind a crate to grab the bottle. Not even turning to look, Roman reached into the gap with one hand, his hand coming back shortly pulling on the hood of Ruby's jacket to drag her out of hiding.

Even having just grabbed it, Ruby had already cracked the seal on the bottle's cap, drinking the milk in a sulk as she hung her legs over the edge of the shelf, still held in place by Roman.

"Now, kiss and make up before the boss gets back." The smirk on Roman's face from how easy it was to tempt out Ruby irked Emerald, but there wasn't time to deal with that now.

"Ruby…" Calling her name earned nothing but the silent treatment as she down another gulp of milk, forehead creasing as she ignored Emerald. "You know we only want to keep you safe, by not taking you along." More silence met this.

"You've seen us come back hurt from missions before." With cuts, bruises, and broken bones (or in Mercury's case sometimes, broken metal). Ruby's frown eased as those memories came back. "We don't have a choice when it's something we have to do, but we do have one when it comes to keeping you from getting hurt too."

"And maybe one day you will be strong enough to come with us." Mercury added. "But there's no rush for you to get there."

"I just…" Ruby held the bottle in both hands, staying still even as Roman pulled back from holding her in place. "I just want to get to help mommy, like you both get to do."

"Maybe, there might be things here you could do that could help her then." There was an internal sigh of relief for Emerald at having Ruby not move away as the teen came close to place a hand on one shoulder. "We could find some tasks like helping Roman," That earned a grimace from the man. "Or loading Dust cartridges perhaps." If Cinder agreed, was the unspoken promise.

"Or driving the getaway car." Mercury earned a giggle with that one. "There's lot of small tasks that would definitely make things easier if we had someone to take care of them."

Ruby's legs were swinging underneath her as she offered a few suggestions of her own, some that they agreed to, others were met with 'we'll see what Cinder says' (fair to say that helping to pickpocket would be shot down). Meanwhile, there was another rustle of plastic as Roman muttered to himself.

"I could have sworn I got a coffee for myself as well."

Ruby's leg swinging picked up it's pace as he looked back over to her, where he could now see the branding along her bottle. It wasn't that bad to give coffee to a kid her age, right?

"How about…" Her words drifted off as she paused. A trembling through the shoulder Emerald was holding onto brought concern, prompting her to ask if Ruby was feeling sick.

Only for a bright red blur to take off, a scattering of rose petals left where Ruby had just been less than a second ago.

"Oh no."

The half filled bottle of coffee milk now lay on the floor, spilling it's contents slowly over the concrete as the blur dashed around all of them, leaving red petals in it's wake everywhere as it bounced from side to side, an excited shriek ringing out with it. Loud enough that it covered the sound of heels clicking across the floor.

"Mommy!" A rush of wind went past Roman, turning him around to be left spluttering out petals.

There was but a second of Cinder being surprised by the streak of red that zoomed towards her to turn into a Ruby that wrapped both arms around the woman's waist, practically gluing herself onto her. Widened eyes quickly snapped back into her normal gaze, taking the scene before her in. Petals were scattered everywhere, on the floor, on shelves, on crates. Even some still stuck to Roman.

"Your semblance has shown?" Ruby gazed up at her with bright eyes expectantly. A hand slid across dark hair tinged with red, Cinder's mouth curving into a smile. "I'm so proud of you." A wide grin beamed up at her as the woman picked up to prop against one hip. "Now you'll have to tell me how it all happened."

Excited babble could be heard as Cinder walked away, Ruby eager to share. Before they could follow, Mercury gave a cough to catch Emerald's attention. When her gaze went to him, she was met with an irritating smirk.

"I'll be sure to take the blame for her semblance, don't you worry about that." He strode off before she could answer back.

"You little piece of shit." Emerald stalked off after him, leaving Roman alone to his own devices.

Adjusting his hat, he looked over the place. Rose petals were everywhere, there was a brown milk puddle, a couple of crates had dents from where the tornado tyke had bounced off of them. And all the papers that had been meticulously laid out on top of his desk were now blown across the warehouse, some just now falling down.

"…I just had the place cleaned…"


	6. Chapter 6: Welcome to Beacon

**Not dead, just really stuck when it came to writing. I don't think this came out great, but I got it done and good enough to be posted, which makes me happy. So enjoy.**

"We're proceeding to phase two."

What that section of the plan was, was apparently not for Roman to know fully at this time. Though he knew his objective of heading over to Mountain Glenn with as much Dust as he felt necessary. And he could guess on what Cinder's crew was from the false papers and uniforms the teens picked up as they left after her. He sighed, pulling out the cigar from his mouth and putting it away. His nicotine addiction would have to suffer until he could grab another lighter elsewhere.

There was a tap to his side, the criminal glancing down to find Neo at his side. Locking gazes, her hands started to gesture.

"They taking the kid with them?"

"Well, she can't exactly come with us to Grimm infested ruins. What?" He huffed as Neo's face drew into a pout. "She can't! Besides, they're probably going to drop her off at a kindergarten or with some babysitter out of the way. It's not like they can just walk in the front door with a kid in tow."

"Look! Look! You can see all of the city from here!" Ruby squealed, hands pressed up against the glass. A gentle turn tilted the airship, bringing even more of a view of Vale into sight as they passed overhead.

"Ruby!" Emerald pushed her way through the crowd of people also sharing the aircraft. "Don't take off like that. You have to stay close to us, remember?" It wasn't a good feeling to feel the small hand slip from hers and then have her disappear from sight, even if there was no way for her to get off the ship for now.

"But look! You can even see the docks from here!" She pointed at where the sea met the edge of the city, even the warehouse looking so much smaller from this height. The only problem, she wasn't sure if she was pointing out the right building. They all looked the same from here, indistinct blocks of grey and black. A hand wrapped around hers, the grip more firm than before.

"Hm. You can see the boats coming in as well." Including what looked like a couple of barely discernible police boats zooming in on their place. Which would be nothing but a completely cleared out warehouse home to nothing but rats and bugs.

"All passengers, please prepare to disembark." Speakers crackled to life as the pilot spoke. "We will landing at the Beacon Academy port soon. Make sure to have all your belongings with you as you leave." The crackling ended with a chime as the cliff side came closer in their view, the school's buildings beginning to tower over as they approached. Ruby's free hand pulled on a strap of her backpack, the Beowulf face on it twisting as she adjusted it.

"So why are we heading to this academy?" She'd heard snippets about it already, half picked up conversations between the criminals. Home for Hunters in training, and separate from the city in both location and control. "I thought you and Mercury didn't go to school anyways." Emerald's eyes slid off to the side, carefully eyeing the other people wearing uniforms around them to see if anyone had been paying attention.

"Well, we're not really here to take classes." She admitted, giving her full attention back to Ruby. "It's just that this place is going to be hosting a huge festival soon…"

"Oh! The Vytal Festival!"

"Yeah, that's right. And part of that is a huge tournament. Only problem, only those that are part of the schools get to compete." There was a rumble to the craft as it started to hover, workers in bright gear and holding light sticks directing it from the ground to an empty space.

"Ah." Now the black uniforms with white trimmings made sense. "Mercury does like to beat people up."

"Hey, enough with the slander." Another figure joined them at the window, the teen in question reaching down to pinch at Ruby's cheek, smirking at her objection to it. "It's not my fault I can't seem to find any fair fights." The ship shook as it finally met the ground, people starting to crush towards the exit ramp as it came down slowly. "Cinder says she's going to take care of some business. We're off to find the dorms."

"They sure do seem to love their arches here." Emerald muttered, as they passed by yet another one on their way down the down the courtyard out front of the school. The occasional glance their way had made her tense originally, but the more the gazes passed over them, the easier it was to start relaxing.

Mercury on the other hand, was striding through like he was used to being in one of the most prestigious schools in Remnant. Even with a child clinging to his shoulders, little feet unconsciously kicking around his sides as Ruby gaped at their surroundings.

"That one has a collapsible staff! Oh, and she's got a flame sword!"

"Sounds pretty basic for a future Huntress to have though." Emerald enjoyed seeing the girl mentioned turned a shade of red at the comment as the kept walking. "Aren't our weapons cool enough for you?"

"Well, yeah. But there's just so many different kinds here!" A tall boy with a giant green sword almost as tall as he was and a hooked tip strapped to his back walked past them, earning a sigh from Ruby. "Can't wait to make my own some day."

"Already got some plans?"

"Not really. But I know it's going to be the coolest. Even cooler than all of yours. Though I guess that's easy when you don't have one." A yelp soon followed, Ruby grasping at the collar of Mercury's to stop sliding down as she found the arms holding her loosening. "Mercury!"

"Oh no." Even with no change to his expression, the monotone gave away how much he cared. "It seems I've suddenly gotten weaker. Perhaps, from thinking how cool your weapon will be."

"Stop! Rocket legs are cool, I promise!" But it was too late, no scrabbling for grip would stop her demise. With the last of her ability, she reached up one hand over Mercury's shoulder. "Emerald, avenge me! Urgh." A soft thump came from her back meeting the ground, limbs flopping out spread-eagle. Emerald sighed, looking away.

"If you're done dying, I think the dorms are past the dining hall over here." She pointed past the large fountain, another arch set of arches next to the main impressive school tower showing more normal looking school halls.

The teens took a few steps, pausing to look back at Ruby still on the ground, doing death groans. It took Mercury picking up her legs to drag her body along behind them before Ruby decided to think twice about being dead and start walking again.

"So," Ruby jogged to catch up to catch up to their stride. "How long is it until the tournament comes?"

"About a few weeks?" There was a quirk to Emerald's voice as a pack of students rushed past them, coming from the hall they had to walk past, a few panicked yells coming from them. Despite the surprise, Ruby shrugged it off to walk ahead.

"So we have to stay at this school for THAT long? Do we have to go to classes too?" Most of what she knew about schools came from shows on TV and in her books. The amount of kids that detested going to one and sitting in a room all day long brought reluctance at being here.

"Well, we might." Mercury nodded as he easily matched her pace. "You, on the other hand, will probably won't meet the height requirement for them."

"Then I'll be staying behind, like at the warehouse." Nothing really changed other than the setting. "It's going to be a whole lot of boring again too."

A wet smack came as a purple splatter appeared against the glass window next to Ruby. After jumping back from the glass, she then pressed her face to a clear patch next to the splatter.

A girl with dark hair whipped a string of sausages around, before switching to a pair of baguette sticks to face off against a red headed girl also wielding a baguette. Melons flew through the air, to be punched aside by a pair of turkeys worn like gauntlets on a blonde.

Ruby tried to move for a better view as turkey girl moved to engage the melon lord, only for a swordfish to come flying to slap against the window and leave a greasy smear across a fair length of it, reducing everything through it blobs of colour shifting frantically around.

Not even thinking, the first option she turned to was to start for the doors into the hallway nearby.

"No." Two voices spoke and two hands grabbed at Ruby's backpack before she could take more than a step. And given the stern looking administrative type lady that was now stalking towards that same set of doors, not a moment too soon.

"I changed my mind." There was a crash above them that rattled the hall as the lady strode in, another following a short while after. "This place seems a lot more fun."

"We can go looking for fun later. Trouble, not so much right now." Emerald tugged her backpack to lead past the halls to their original destination. "You know Cinder wouldn't like us getting mixed up with something like that before even getting set up." There was a whine, but Ruby couldn't argue against that, being led away by the straps of her bag.

"And you two!" The click of heels had come up behind them before they could disappear from the scene, stern voice freezing Emerald and Mercury in place before they turned to face her. Half moon glasses slipped a notch down her nose as she peered at them, trying to place their faces in her memory before her gaze drifted to their uniforms. "What are you doing here?"

"Just finding our way to the the dorms." Mercury answered without any slip of sarcasm accompanying his blank face, for once. Emerald offered as bright a smile she could manage as the stare passed onto her. Ruby simply blinked back from between the two, hanging onto one of each teens' hands.

"You're visiting students from Mistral, correct?" A nod to confirm. "I don't recall Haven Academy saying they were letting children onto teams now."

"She's my little sister." Again they both acted at the same time, silence falling in with the realisation of their actions as the woman took another sweep of them. Taking in the features and probable age of Ruby and trying to match them to the teens without finding any success as her brow pinched together. They could practically see the ideas floating behind her eyes, a silent huff of air passing out before she spoke once more.

"Listen, I don't know what kind of dynamics are going on with your team. But if you or your team mates are… overcoming familial issues while taking part of the tournament, please know that you can ask our administration for some extra support while you are staying here." She studied Ruby again, a sudden grin from the child earning a small smile back. "Make sure to pass that onto the rest of your team. Now, do you need any help finding your way to the visitors' dormitory?"

"No, there was a map around the entrance that helped point it out to us. We should be fine, thank you." A couple more lines of conversation ending, and Emerald was able to extricate them from dealing with the lady. They turned round the corner of the dorms, her shoulders sagging as the tension bled away with her breathing out.

"Let's not get stuck talking with her again any time soon."

"I thought you enjoyed being teacher's pet though." Emerald's features drew together. "Or is it just Cinder's pet?"

"Really?" Her voice dropped low into a hiss for only Mercury to hear. "You're going to do this shit in front of the kid?" One hand twitched back, going for where her pistols would have been on her back.

All she got was a smirk.

"Looks like we haven't raised any red flags in entering."

A hand stroked down over Ruby's hair as she hugged tight to Cinder's side as they sat on a bed, smoothing a stray lock back into place. Moving in as part of the earliest waves of 'contenders' had come with perks, such as being able to pick out one of the larger rooms available. Not to mention a good view, and no other teams in the immediate vicinity for now.

"About that," Amber eyes flicked to Emerald. "It seems at least one of the administration knows that… basically Ruby is your kid. Or at least thinks that one of our 'team' might be an underage parent."

"Hm. It was bound to happen sooner or later." Emerald had been expecting irritation at best, not complete acceptance. "What matters is avoiding having them poking around too closely."

"Then, what happens next?" Mercury asked, sprawled out on the floor next to his bed.

The corners of Cinder's mouth quirked up as she gazed down on Ruby and her backpack. The backpack which had been looked over by security not suspecting a child. And, in addition to part of Ruby's own luggage, held a few special tools of her trade.

"Complete infiltration, of course."


End file.
